Marcus Whitman's John Talbot is the Daily Messenger's Boys Tennis Player of the Year

Monday

Jul 21, 2014 at 10:00 AM

Talbot won a Section 5 individual title as a senior

Dan Goldman

The list of boys tennis Section 5 individual champions at Marcus Whitman isn't a long one. Danny Wickham won in 2012, and coach Bryan Law said there might've been another singles player and two doubles teams before that. John Talbot joined the small club by winning an individual title of his own this past spring.

The senior dominated the Finger Lakes League with an 11-0 record and finished 22-3 overall. Talbot is the Daily Messenger's 2014 Boys Tennis Player of the Year.

The son of John H. Talbot IV and Karen J. Button completed his fifth year on the varsity tennis team. After placing third at Class B individual sectionals as a junior, Talbot was motivated to win the title and go undefeated.

The Wildcat put in a lot of work in the off-season to improve his game. He trained in the off-season and ran track in the winter. Talbot also aimed to vary his game by playing along the baseline and at the net interchangeably during matches.

“He definitely kept improving,” Whitman tennis coach Bryan Law said. “I had my assistant coach Matt Palmer hit with him during practice so he would really be challenged and keep pushing him. We tried to push him to his potential. It got him that patch.”

While Talbot himself did well in Finger Lakes matches, the Wildcats also thrived as a team. Whitman captured a Finger Lakes West League title. The team finished as the runner-up to Williamson in Class CC sectionals.

“I think this was the best year not only with how we played, but also bonding-wise,” Talbot said. “I think we really came together closer than any other team, and I think that's what made us so strong.”

Bonding with the team and coach Law were his favorite memories from the past season.

Talbot's individual championship came in Class C. He defeated LeRoy's Steve Farnholz in the finals, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5. It was a match that lasted three hours, and both players were cramping up as the match went on. At the state qualifier, Talbot advanced to the second round.

Finger Lakes coaches selected him to the All-Finger Lakes West first team and also gave him the Roger Meadway Award. The honor is given in memory of the former Waterloo coach to a senior who is a tennis ambassador and shows character sportsmanship, teamwork and a love for the game of tennis.

“They saw him as a person who would during a match get to know his opponent, speak to his opponent about what they like to do, what courses they take at school and spend time getting to know him,” Law said. “The coaches get to see that. They see John is very personable and I think they saw him being what they call an ambassador of tennis.”

Talbot also did three years of varsity soccer and two years of varsity indoor track. He also was president of leadership class, co-president of Future Educators of America and a participant in Youth Court.

In the fall, he'll attend Hartwick College and play Division 3 tennis there.

“It's funny I didn't find out about Hartwick until one and a half weeks before the deadline,” Talbot said. “Originally I was set on Rutgers. The coach invited me to see the school, and I fell in love with the campus and the academics.”

The Whitman grad plans to study philosophy and then possibly law after that.

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